Needless to say, Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal should not include cinnamon-crusted shrimp tails.
But according to writer-producer-podcaster Jensen Karp, a family package from a local Costco had just that – along with a piece of string, a “strange cinnamon-covered pea thing” and “black things” cooked in some squares and lurking at the bottom of the bag.
This was not what the Times food columnist, Lucas Kwan Peterson, had in mind when he ranked Cinnamon Toast Crunch at the top of his official breakfast cereal rating a few years ago.
“Ummmm @CTCSquares – why is there a shrimp tail in my cereal? (That’s not a bit), ”Karp tweeted on Monday morning after eating a bowl of cereal and seeing some sugar-coated things in the package that didn’t look like the traditional rice and wheat squares of the cereal. Yes, they looked like a pair of shrimp tails.
Karp is credited as a producer or executive producer on shows like “Unleashed” by Nickelodeon and “Drop the Mic” by TBS / TNT. He worked with “Schitt’s Creek” star Dan Levy, and in his early years he was a battle rapper. For real.
And he had a word for skeptics who think he’s faking the whole thing to become a viral sensation: “there are black COOKED items in the squares and tons at the bottom of the bag,” he tweeted on Tuesday, “in addition to shrimp tails and other SUGAR-COATED garbage. Furthermore, it is only ‘viral’ because of its insane response. I would have dropped it. “
In response to the offer from manufacturer General Mills to replace the cereal in question, he tweeted on Monday: “Guys – I’m not sure I’m ready for another box !!!” The company replied: “We understand your concern. We promise you that our team will look into this and investigate what is going on – but in the meantime, we want to do everything in our power to fix it. We will need more details to search. “
The company told Karp later in the day that its team’s investigation into the images he posted led them to believe that the mysterious ingredients were “an accumulation of cinnamon sugar that can sometimes occur when the ingredients are not well mixed” .
“We guarantee that there is no possibility of cross-contamination with shrimp,” the company said in a direct message to Karp, adding that it also wanted to offer him General Mills vouchers to compensate for his “unpleasant experience”.
Citing “more investigation with my eyes,” Karp called BS on this explanation. “[T]They are cinnamon-coated SHRIMP tails, their weird ones. Wasn’t I so mad until you tried to light me up? “
About an hour later, he said the company wanted him to send the items for “more detailed analysis”.
“Obviously, these are shrimp tails, so I will keep one as evidence, as I now feel like Sandra Bullock on the Internet,” tweeted Karp, who did not immediately respond to The Times’ interview request on Tuesday.
“Seriously – somebody tell me that they [the black things] they are not like worms or insects. Is it adjacent shrimp? (Did you just find this strange cinnamon-covered pea thing?), ”Karp tweeted. “I wanted this to be a joke.”
A Twitter user said it looked like “something got into a bag of dry mix and nestled”, which led Karp to notice that he felt like washing his mouth with acid.
On Monday afternoon, Karp called on his wife, actress and director Danielle Fishel of “Boy Meets World”, to explore the family’s second bag on Monday night. In addition to finding what was supposed to be the thong, she discovered signs – that is, tape – that the bag may have been tampered with.
On Tuesday, Karp took the box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch to a laboratory for testing and then updated his followers.
“Now I’m in contact with a test lab: the ‘black stuff’, which I won’t call any other name yet for my own sanity. In addition, a research company will be paying to test the shrimp tail DNA! (2021, you) “, he said in a tweet topic. “I also want to explain this: I have no idea how these things got into my cereal bags or @CTCSquares. It definitely could have been contaminated at Costco (although that doesn’t explain the squares with black COOKED thing or the sugar coating on the shrimp).
“My point is – their initial reaction to the shellfish being in the bag was to tell me it was sugar,” he continued. “Not to investigate the problem or to investigate it. It is a deadly allergy for many (and non-Kosher) people and that didn’t seem to matter other than offering me a new box. I initially approached them thinking it would help! So, they said that I’m confusing sugar with a crustacean. Anyway, I’m testing the DNA of a shrimp tail right now. So, I hope everyone is happy. “
Tweeting screenshots of his exchanges with General Mills, Karp said the company contacted him again via direct message and asked him to wait for FedEx on Wednesday and deliver the items that Karp and Fishel had found, in addition to all the packaging. Karp replied that he would not send anything.
“You are being super shallow and awkward,” he wrote to the company, “when this was a very easy public relations response to make people feel confident that you care about your products.”
“While we are still investigating this issue, we can confidently say that it did not happen at our facility,” General Mills spokesman Mike Siemienas said in a statement to The Times. “We are waiting for the consumer to send us the packaging for further investigation. Any consumer who finds that their cereal box or bag has been tampered with, such as the clear tape that was found in this case, should contact us. “
Costco did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, Karp told TMZ on Tuesday that he was “out” of the cereal forever, saying it was “a drag because I was a big fan”. Like, he was the guy with the vintage Cinnamon Toast Crunch shirt, with the Nikes Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
“I am the new Gorilla Glue Girl, am I not?”, Tweeted Karp on Tuesday.
Late in the afternoon, a social media expert at General Mills sent Karp an email suggesting that he take the items in question to “local authorities” if he didn’t want to send them to the company.
“This could be tampering with the product and we need the opportunity to investigate the packaging,” the company said by email.
“I’m not entering any police station shouting, ‘Here are the shrimp tails that General Mills wants!’ as if it were the smoking gun of a murder, ”replied Karp.
“You,” he said, “are a company in an insane mess.”